At Cloud Cover, we know that business connections matter, a lot! As a group we have joined many networking groups, chambers and various clubs to increase visibility, get involved with our community and establish trusted partners with other businesses in Central, Ohio. Some memberships have worked and some have not. Since we provide IT support to small and medium sized businesses in Central, Ohio, we need to make sure our memberships work in that area. So when considering who to get involved with this year as we are approaching a huge increase in our growth, we started to consider The Columbus Chamber of Commerce. I perused their membership directory, membership team and chamber events on their website. The website, columbus.org is very well laid out and easy to navigate. They list all of their members, most of which are locally owned businesses in and around Columbus. Since we provide IT support to small and medium sized businesses in Central, Ohio, we need to make sure our memberships work in that area. I was happy to see that most of their members fit into that size. They list their events, chamber sponsored and member sponsored, and they have so many resources for local businesses. I was very impressed right from the start.

So when Kelly and I met, I was already on board, although I of course did not tell her that... She was engaged, interested in our business and what we do, and what we wanted to gain out of our membership. She had a folder full of resources, information and pricing with various plans and the benefits to each plan. membership fees are not inexpensive, well at least for a small business like ours. But the benefits seemed to be favored to out weighing the cost of membership to the chamber. After discussing with Brent, we decided to get on board and try to make the most out of our newest partnership.

We met with Taylor, our membership liaison and had a very great conversation about what we could do to maximize the benefits and who we most wanted to meet. She gave us several suggestions and some homework to do. We have already been to several meetings and events and have had very positive experiences. We do feel like we joined a partnership and are excited about the future possibilities with the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Not to mention, looking ahead to the 95th Annual Columbus Chamber Clambake & Lobster Feast in September! We look forward to posting pictures of events and making new connections!